Consent to record therapy sessions: what to explain, how to ask, how to keep the answer

What to explain before you ask

Consent is only informed when the client knows what they are agreeing to. Cover each of these, in words the client would use:

• What is recorded: audio, video or both, and whether the recording is turned into a transcript.
• Why: for example, so you can write accurate notes and stay present in the session.
• Where it is processed and kept: on your own computer, or on a company’s servers, and in which country.
• Who can see or hear it: you, a supervisor, colleagues, the tool’s provider, anyone else.
• Whether AI is used, what it does (transcribes, drafts a note) and that you check and sign every note yourself.
• How long it is kept, and whether the recording is deleted once the note is written.
• That saying no changes nothing about their care, and that they can stop the recording at any time, including mid-session.
• The limits of confidentiality, which apply to recordings as they do to the rest of the record.

How to ask

• Ask before the session, not at the door. Send the form with the intake paperwork, then go over it together at the start.
• Use plain language and a short form. One page the client can read in a few minutes is better than a long document nobody reads.
• Invite questions, and pause for them. Check understanding by asking the client to say in their own words what will happen to the recording.
• Make no the easy answer. Say plainly that you will take notes by hand instead and that their care is the same either way.
• Ask each person in the room. In couples, family and group work, everyone recorded gives their own consent.
• Offer it in the client’s language, and use an interpreter where needed so the consent is truly understood.

Where a client cannot consent for themselves, for example a young child or an adult who lacks capacity, who may consent on their behalf, and how the client is still involved, depends on where you practise. Check with your regulator or professional body.

How to record the answer

Keep the answer where anyone reading the file would look for it, so there is never doubt about whether a session could be recorded.

Note conditions as carefully as the yes itself. A client may agree to audio but not video, or to recording only some sessions. Revisit consent when something changes: a new tool, a new use such as supervision, or a new person in the room.

When a client withdraws consent

• Stop recording at once, including in the middle of a session, without asking for a reason.
• Record the withdrawal with the date and how it was given (spoken, written, by message).
• Talk about what happens to earlier recordings. Explain what you can delete and what must stay in the record where you practise, and act on it.
• Switch to your usual notes and keep the care unchanged. Withdrawal is not a clinical event in itself.
• Ask again only if the client raises it, never as pressure.

How Olive Grove helps

Olive Grove includes a one-page, plain-language consent form with your practice and name filled in. It covers recording, AI-drafted notes on your computer, voice signatures, record keeping, withdrawal and confidentiality, and you can edit it into your own template. One press of Consent given records consent with the date in the client’s care record, which also keeps consent refused or withdrawn and how. The client’s To do says when consent is due for review, every 12 months unless you change it. You can also send the form online: the client signs by typing their name, without an account.

The form is a starting point for you to review and adapt; nothing in the app depends on it. See The consent form and the care record, Forms clients fill in before the first session and Clients and records.